Saturday, October 22, 2011

Sleeping In on a Saturday...

 ...and the room is icy, but the bed is warm. The light is soft and gray while the promise of hot coffee is very tempting.

I am reading about haiku this morning and fascinated by the complexity. There are the sounds units of on and its difference from syllables; the skill and art to kireji, a "cutting word" that has no English equivalent except for the use of ellipses and dashes; combine all this with a stage subtly set by kigo which is meant to suggest a season, but not necessarily be about nature. Even the physical way of writing haiku has me intrigued. I love how the Japanese write haiku vertically, lending visual art to the form and then contrasting that to the horizontal, familiar lines of English.

And now, I am inspired by my surroundings to write haiku. Please forgive me Matsuo Basho, for being unabashedly American.

Old dog, snorts and snores

We snuggle in wool blankets

Yikes! Your toes are cold!

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